I went for a couple of rides the last few days, and I thought that I'd share my self-observations. We rode to Mission Beach on Sunday, about 21km r-t: http://www.rjs.org/gallery/python_MissionBeach_004.jpg It was nice and flat, and I was consistently faster than my usual. Stop-and-go maneuvering through people was a bit difficult, but the bike gets attention, usually young kids. I crashed into the sand once, on the Bay side. The girls in thongs weren't out yet, and Barbara wouldn't have taken photos of them anyway. Sorry. I added panniers to the rear and commuted to the office Monday, ~40km r-t. The Big problem was the main hill, 100m in 2km. I stopped twice and almost went back - Calle del Oro is >10% in places http://topozone.com/map.asp?z=11&n=3635500.00007553&e=476682.000000001&datum=nad83 I could barely stay in one side of the road and my quads were burning; when I put out high effort, I could no longer steer well with my legs, and using my hands caused erratic interactions. My first gear is 24f - 26r; a lower ratio and I would not be able to balance at a 3kph rate. This is considerably harder than my Trek tourer. I find now that I steer with legs while riding flat and fast, just resting my hands on the brakes, then mentally "turn off" my legs and switch to hands for steep climbs and coasting downhill. I was able to descend at 35-40kph just fine. The big advantage was riding into the wind (always both ways, because of daily coastal flows) on the flat - fast and comfortable. My full cushion seat back is a bit warm with extended effort. It needs more open space to sweat. I also need a sand/water guard for the tires. Ray Schumacher La Jolla, CA (near San Diego) http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=13&Z=11&X=296&Y=2270&W=1 http://rjs.org/bent.htm also: http://rexranger.com ============================================================ This is the Python Mailinglist at freelists.org Listmaster: Jürgen Mages jmages@xxxxxx To unsubscribe send an empty mail to python-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field. ============================================================